Game Of Thrones: 10 Ways Season 5 Was Better Than The Books
4. Jon Killing Mance
There’s a great scene early on in the season when Stannis decides to burn Mance Rayder alive, obviously a pretty brutal way to go out. He’s suffering horribly for a bit, but Jon decides to take action and put him out of his misery, personally firing an arrow right into Mance to give him a quick death.
This does happen in both versions, but in the books, Jon isn’t the one who fires the arrow; he just orders his men to do so. This might seem like a small change, but it’s actually pretty significant and one of the showrunners’ most effective decisions.
A lot of energy this season has been devoted to really getting us to like Jon as a leader, partially so the last scene was even more devastating. Seeing him give the order would have been cool, and viewers would have gotten the idea that he made a wise decision, but it’s so much more effective to see him taking actions into his own hands and being the one to actually kill Mance. He doesn’t wait for anyone else to do it. Jon does it himself, because that's who he is.
It’s an amazing moment that really makes everyone, Stannis included, realize that Jon truly is a strong leader, willing to make the hard decision and do it himself when nobody else is willing to.